Evaluation of Resistance to Malathion and Pirimiphos Methyl in Strains of Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) collected in Indonesia.

Fifty-six strains of Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) collected from BULOG and commercial godowns of village co-operative units and farmers' padi storage units from many parts of Indonesia were tested for resistance to malathion and pirimiphos methyl. Forty-nine of these strains showed various degrees of resistance while seven showed a susceptible response to malathion. All the strains of T. castaneum were susceptible to pirimiphos methyl. The dominant species of Tribolium spp. in Indonesia was found to be T. castaneum (Herbst)

Insecticide Resistance in Sitophilus zeamais Mots. and Rhizopertha dominicav (F.) in Indonesia

Fourteen strains of Sitophilus zaemais and fifteen strains of Rhizopertha dominica, collected from rice warehouses andfarmers' storage facilities throughout Indonesia were tested for resistance to malathion and pirimzphos methyl. Two strains of S. zeamais showed a slightly resistant response to malathion, while all strains of this species were susceptible to pirimzphos methyl. Resistance of R. dorninica to malathion was detected in three out of the fifteen strains tested. The predominant species of Sitophilus was S. zeamais

Sustainable intensification – “oxymoron” or “third-way”? A systematic review

Sustainable Intensification (SI) is a term that has been advanced to capture a concept that some consider as the ‘third paradigm’ for global agricultural development. However, the term has become subject to intense debates as well as scepticism and confusion regarding its meaning and the characteristics of production systems that could indicate SI (defined as “indicators”). This has resulted in a proliferation of literature. We have conducted a systematic review of a sample of this literature analysing the most commonly suggested indicators of SI in order to investigate the extent to which the critiques of SI are valid in their viewpoints that SI is an oxymoron, underpinned by a productivist agenda, and to identify the critical issues in the development of a comprehensive and unambiguous set of SI indicators. From 633 articles identified by a search of relevant databases, a sample of 75 articles were selected and analysed using the NVIVO™ software. The results were organised according to a Socio-Ecological Systems (SES) framework comprising seven sub-systems or components − resource system, resource units, governance system, resource users, interactions, outcomes, and environment. A total of 218 indicators (both positive and negative) were identified. Most of these indicators focused on the ‘outcomes’ of agricultural systems with the majority being related to agricultural production. Few indicators were identified as relating to the economic and societal dimensions of food systems. Whilst this potentially suggested a productivist bias in the current interpretation of SI it was difficult to draw a black and white conclusion, since for the other system components, the majority of the indicators suggested appeared to take a more holistic point-of-view and emphasised both productivity and sustainability of agricultural systems. Our analysis suggests that a key reason why SI may be viewed with scepticism is a lack of specificity and elucidation of the rationale, scale, and farm type for which SI is proposed. Moreover, a number of the indicators were so loosely defined that the interventions they imply could be enacted without due consideration of the social impacts of their adoption. We conclude that there is need to develop SI indicators according to specific farming types and scales and also with more consideration of the social and political dimensions of food systems in order to promote a constructive dialogue around the concept of SI to take place. Unless the concept of SI is described and measured in such a holistic and inclusive manner, it is unlikely to be accepted as a valid descriptor of sought-after agricultural practices by players in the Third Sector

Towards a Behavioral Theory of Farmer Decision -Making: The Value of Site -Specific Information in Agricultural Production

122 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2001.The results of the numerical optimization model indicates that for uniform applications of N fertilizer, imperfect SSI about soil N levels will only be valuable in a typical Illinois farm if the costs of acquiring that information is not more than $1.05 per acre. Costs greater than this will not give value to producers that will compensate the cost of acquiring information. Comparative statics from the numerical model showed that the accuracy or the level of informativeness of SSI, the degree of risk-aversion, management ability, and the level of prior uncertainty; all have a positive relationship with the value of SSI. On the other hand, initial wealth is numerically shown to have a negative relationship with the value of SSI. Furthermore, mean input use is found to decrease as SSI becomes more informative. The empirical results above have important implications with respect to nitrogen information management, environmental management, and predicting adoption behavior.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD